2007 Batard Montrachet

As in so many of the best 2007s, including this from this site, Girardin's 2007 Batard-Montrachet displays striking generosity of ripe, luscious fruit. Quince, white peach, and pineapple are mingled with citrus oils and heady florality in the nose. On the palate, this is bright and downright vivacious, as well as suffused with a diversity and intensity of mineral aspects for which words like "chalk," "salt," or "iodine," represent merely the poor best one can do. This finishes with choral layering and dynamic, and ready to return for the next sip before the music has even died away. Look for ten or a dozen years of fascination and exhilaration. Vincent Girardin picked until past mid-September, with most of his top sites being brought in only from the 10th; allowed skin contact he would have avoided until recent years; and beat the lees on his young wines only until Christmas, but then bottled – with a light fining, and in many instances no filtration – only in May, 2009 to maximize passive time on the lees. The regimen of new wood here (now 20-30% depending on cru) represents a drastic diminution in just the past several years, and the 2007s strike me as far more comfortable in their skins than those of 2004-2006, benefiting also from the freshness and vivacity that characterize the vintage. He picked a week too late in 2006, opines Girardin with hindsight, but then, this was almost unavoidable in at least some instances for a vintner with such huge acreage. Girardin finds his 2007s especially marked by the typicity of each individual site, not only to a greater degree than in the two more obviously ripe preceding vintages, but also than in 2008. This is an aspect he is convinced will gradually be enhanced by a conversion to biodynamic methods that is underway. Girardin's 2007 musts were selectively chaptalized and finished wines here are largely in the vicinity of 13% alcohol. As usual, given the vast array of estate and negociant wines at this address (the latter status noted, where applicable, in my texts), I was not able to take time for tasting them all; in particular omitting the generics. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802